<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>In The Heat Of Battle by monkiainen</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24368041">In The Heat Of Battle</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/monkiainen/pseuds/monkiainen'>monkiainen</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Sherlock (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Fusion, Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Greg is an Auror, John is badass, M/M, Mycroft works for the Ministry of Magic, Sherlock sort of teaches at Hogwarts, Wizarding Wars (Harry Potter)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 11:00:26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,024</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24368041</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/monkiainen/pseuds/monkiainen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It's time.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Mycroft Holmes/Greg Lestrade</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Holmestice Exchange - Summer 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>In The Heat Of Battle</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mafief/gifts">Mafief</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>One would think that after seeing one war, you'd be prepared to see everything.</p>
<p>But it was even worse this time around when you already knew what Lord Voldemort and his followers were capable of. Sometimes Greg wondered why he had chosen to be an Auror in times like these, but he already knew the answer – because he cared so much.</p>
<p>So okay, in these times being an Auror was a stained thing, something that Thicknesse and his cronies had managed to corrupt beyond evil. The general assumption was that if you worked for the Ministry, you worked for Lord Voldemort. There were exceptions, of course, but those were far and few, and they had to hide the best they could.</p>
<p>Greg was pretty sure that Kingsley Shacklebolt, Nymphadora Tonks and Arthur Weasley were the good guys, but one could never be too sure. Asking things around from the wrong person would guarantee your death in the hands of the most devoted followers – after being subjected to Cruciatus Curse more than was healthy. Everyone had been taught what had happened to the Longbottoms during the First War.</p>
<p>It was a scary thought, wasn't it, to be reduced as a living shell who wouldn't even recognize their own child.</p>
<p>Greg wished it would never happen to him, or anyone he cared about. Especially to Mycroft, who had the most dangerous job of them all.</p>
<p>Most people only looked at the appearance and saw what they wanted to see: Mycroft Holmes, former Head Boy of Slytherin, currently the junior undersecretary to the Minister of Magic. He had to be evil, of course, he had to, being Slytherin and all. And with a job like that! Working with likes of Umbridge, who was also a former Slytherin, it was obvious that Mycroft Holmes was nothing good.</p>
<p>Little did people know, didn't they. But Greg knew better, and he knew that Mycroft was in the side of light despite his appearances. It was all planned from the start – Mycroft's position allowed him to report the coming and goings of the Ministry to Greg, Sherlock and John, who did their best to fight the endless battle. Sherlock was currently at Hogwarts, teaching Potions. Well, teaching and teaching – mostly he was talking to nearly empty classrooms while trying to hide the students that for some reason didn't please the Carrows. It would be a lot easier if Sherlock could contain his sharp tongue for lashing out to those he felt were beneath him – just because Holmeses were part of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, it didn't mean that they were immune to punishments. And Carrows loved to pick on Sherlock just to see what kind of reaction they could get out of him.</p>
<p>John was in Hogsmeade, helping Aberforth in Hog's Head. Now, if ever, John's training in the Muggle Army was valuable – he was very, very good at sneaking around and setting booby traps to the other side. And it didn't hurt, either, that John was both an accomplished Healer and a doctor in Muggle medicine. Those poor kids that had managed to hide from the Carrows were sometimes so badly beaten John cringed to the thought who could ever hurt a child. Clearly, those who thought Lord Voldemort was the best thing to happen to the Wizarding World since Merlin.</p>
<p>The current Headmaster Severus Snape was a bit of a mystery. Sherlock swore that Snape was on their side despite his current position and the way he treated the students, but Greg was sceptical. What if it was just another ruse the other side was playing at? What if it was just another trap?</p>
<p>Everything was possible.</p>
<p>Moriarty case had proven it once and for all. How could a Squib be so convincing he fooled every one in the Auror Department he had magical powers rivalling the Dark Lord himself? It was a real shame to everyone involved, to be ridiculed so completely. No wonder the general public didn't trust the Auror Department even before the whole "Dark Lord has infiltrated the Ministry" thing.</p>
<p>Mycroft trusted Greg. Mycroft trusted Greg enough to let him know the whole truth. That there was a secret organization of Light, founded by the late Albus Dumbledore during the First War. Even if Mycroft wasn't a true member, he still had ties to the organization and tried to help them the best he could. Of course, Mycroft had ties, it was in his nature.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, it was a scary thought that their whole destiny laid in the hands of a 17-year-old wizard. Greg felt sorry for Harry Potter – it couldn't have been easy to grow up like that, high expectations hanging over your head for something that happened when you were barely a toddler. No one knew for sure what had happened in Godric's Hollow that fateful night – only that Voldemort had vanished and Harry Potter had somehow survived the Killing Curse against all odds.</p>
<p>And now they were all preparing for the final battle.</p>
<p>Greg was sickened for the idea of Voldemort attacking a school of all places – the same school he had been a student in. What would happen to Professor Sprout's greenhouses? Or to the Astronomy Tower? And more importantly, what would happen to the children?</p>
<p>The battle seemed to last for hours and hours to no end. Then someone cried: "Potter is dead! We are all doomed!"</p>
<p>Greg's heart stopped. No. Not this, not now. How could the one who was supposed to save them all could be dead?</p>
<p>Except, of course, he wasn't. Harry Potter had cheated Death again, and no one quite understood how.</p>
<p>
  <i>("It's the Deathly Hallows", Mycroft explained much later without giving any other explanation. Greg had learned not to ask too many questions when Mycroft presented him the truth, well at least a version of it.)</i>
</p>
<p>Their side may have won, but with a terrible price. Greg helped John carry the wounded out of the castle grounds where they could be Apparated to safety. And still, there were so many people dead, so many children, so many lives lost.</p>
<p>Perhaps tomorrow would be a better day.</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>